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TNC PRESENTS ITS 47th ANNUAL THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS' POW-WOW AND
DANCE CONCERT JAN. 14 TO 23, 2022
All proceeds benefit Native American scholarship fund.
WHERE AND WHEN:
January 14 - 23, 2022
Fridays at 8:00 pm; Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm
Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (at Tenth Street). Presented by Theater
for the New City.
$15 general admission. MATINEES ARE KIDS' DAYS: At all matinée performances,
vaccinated children ages five to twelve who are accompanied by a vaccinated,
ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $15). Children under 5 will
not be admitted.
TNC box office: 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewecity.net
Running time 90 min (all shows). Reviewers are invited to all performances.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO ARE AVAILABLE. See directions at bottom of this document.
NEW YORK, December 14 -- Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, will present
its 47th annual Thunderbird American Dancers Pow Wow and Dance Concert from
January 14 to 23, 2022. There will be dances, stories and traditional music
from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions. The
event has become a treasured New York tradition for celebrating our diversity
by honoring the culture of our first Americans. TNC donates all proceeds from
the event to college scholarship funds for Native American students.
A Pow-Wow is more than just a spectator event: it is a joyous reunion for native
peoples nationwide and an opportunity for the non-Indian community to voyage
into the philosophy and beauty of Native culture. Traditionally a gathering
and sharing of events, Pow-Wows have come to include spectacular dance competitions,
exhibitions, and enjoyment of traditional foods.
Throughout the performance, all elements are explained in depth through detailed
introductions by the troupe's Director and Emcee Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago).
An educator, Mofsie plays an important part in the show by his ability to present
a comprehensive view of native culture. He was awarded a 2019 Bessie Award for
Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. In 2017, he was honored, along with
Garth Fagan and Martha Myers, with a Lifetime Achievement Award from American
Dance Guild.
Highlights will also include storytelling by Matoaka Eagle (Santo Domingo/Chickahominy),
a Hoop Dance set to guitar and flute music that will be performed on alternating
dates by Marie Ponce (Cherokee and Seminole), Michael Taylor (Choktaw) and Matt
Cross (Kiowa); a Deer Dance (from the Yaqui Tribes of Southern Arizona) with
Ciaran Tufford (Mayan/Cherokee) and Carlos Ponce (Mayan), and various ensemble
dances: a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people),
a Stomp Dance (from the Southeastern tribes), a Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma
tribes), a Fancy Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes) and a Robin Dance and Smoke
Dance (from the Iroquois). As the audience enters the theater, they will be
serenaded by the Heyna Second Son Singers (various tribes).
Pageantry is an important component of the event, and all participants are elaborately
dressed. There is a wealth of cultural information encoded in the movements
of each dance. More than ten distinct tribes will be represented in the performance.
The dozen-or-so dancers are people of all ages, raging from thirteen-year-old
Isabel Cespedes (Mayan) to retirees.
Native American crafts and jewelry will be sold in the TNC lobby.
All audience members, including children, must show proof they are vaccinated
to attend this live performance. Children under 5 will not be admitted. Masks
are required at all times for all audience members. Performers will not be masked.
Matinées are kids' days, when vaccinated children aged five to twelve
accompanied by a vaccinated, ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults
$15). Ordinarily, at the conclusion of these matinées, young audience
members pose for pictures with the dancers. This year, due to Covid restrictions,
pictures of the dancers will be allowed but not with audience participation.
Last year, due to the COVID lockdown, this event had to be presented virtually.
The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are the oldest resident Native American
dance company in New York. The troupe was founded in 1963 by a group of ten
Native American men and women, all New Yorkers, who were descended from Mohawk,
Hopi, Winnebago and San Blas tribes. Prominent among the founders were Louis
Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago) and his sister, Josephine Mofsie (deceased), Rosemary
Richmond (Mohawk, deceased), Muriel Miguel (Cuna/Rapahannock) and Jack Preston
(Seneca, deceased). Some were in school at the time; all were "first generation,"
meaning that their parents had been born on reservations. They founded the troupe
to keep alive the traditions, songs and dances they had learned from their parents,
and added to their repertoire from other Native Americans living in New York
and some who were passing through. Jack Preston taught the company its Iroquois
dances, including the Robin Dance and Fish Dance. To these were added dances
from the plains, including the Hopi Buffalo Dance, and newer dances including
the Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance. The company was all-volunteer, a tradition
that exists to today. Members range in professions from teachers to hospital
patient advocates, tree surgeons and computer engineers. Now Louis Mofsie says,
"To be going for 58 years is just amazing to me, and to be able to do the
work we do."
The troupe made a home in the old McBurney YMCA on 23rd Street and Seventh Ave.
Within three or four years, they were traveling throughout the continental U.S.,
expanding and sharing their repertoire and gleaning new dances on the reservations.
A number of Thunderbird members are winners of Fancy Dance contests held on
reservations, where the standard of competition is unmistakably high.
The Thunderbird-TNC collaboration began in 1975, when Crystal Field directed
a play called "The Only Good Indian." For research, Ms. Field lived
on a Hopi reservation for three weeks. In preparation for the project, she met
Louis Mofsie, Artistic Director of the dance troupe and a representative of
the American Indian Community House. Mofsie suggested a Pow Wow and dance concert
to celebrate the winter solstice. Field, who is herself 1% native American,
committed herself to bring this to fruition. The event has continued annually
to this day.
The troupe's appearances benefit college scholarship funds for Native American
students. The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Scholarship Fund receives
its sole support from events like this concert (it receives no government or
corporate contributions), and has bestowed over 350 scholarships to-date. Theater
for the New City has been presenting Pow-Wows annually as a two-week event since
1976, with the box office donated to these scholarships.
Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Avenue (at Tenth Street). Performances
are January 14 - 23, Fridays at 8:00 PM; Saturdays at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM and
Sundays at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $15 general admission. Matinees are kids' days
when vaccinated children ages five to twelve accompanied by a vaccinated, ticket-bearing
adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $15). Babies and children under five will
not be admitted. The TNC box office is 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewecity.net.
# # #
CRITICS ARE INVITED to all performances. Press contact Jonathan Slaff (212)
924-0496.
VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE upon request.
2019 PRODUCTION PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ebLLGRPPQVHjJsxt8
RECENT YEARS' PHOTOS: https://goo.gl/photos/tcrxbtPYtF2hdvhV6 and https://goo.gl/photos/SLr4PXEHJrsq34j9A
HISTORICAL PHOTOS of Pow-Wows from 2004 to 2015 are available for download at:
https://goo.gl/photos/wUcenp6ZcPDcBCYD7